"...Today the ideogram for happiness is one of the most popular "good luck charms" in the country, and is familiar to patrons of Chinese restaurants around the world..."

Boye Lafayette de Mente is one of our regular monthly columnists at the Asian Business Strategy and Street Intelligence Ezine. A noted author with over 30 years of experience in China, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries, Boye's tips on doing business in Asia are both pragmatic and enlightening. Some material is taken from Boye's many books exploring Asian cultural and business, business etiquette, customs, and language.

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Dreaming of Happiness

There is a famous Chinese saying that shiwu or food is heaven to a peasant, a stark reminder that throughout most of China's history the spectre of starvation was a constant companion to the majority of the people.

So compelling was the threat of hunger that the Chinese used the symbols of a cultivated field and a mouth integrated with heaven, representing a full stomach, to mean fu (fuu), or happiness.

Today the ideogram for happiness is one of the most popular "good luck charms" in the country, and is familiar to patrons of Chinese restaurants around the world.

The role that food plays in Chinese life is one of the most conspicuous and important aspects of their culture, and one that can be fully enjoyed by outsiders as well after only a few minutes of orientation.

A Chinese meal served and eaten Chinese style is a tableau of the culture in action, graphically depicting the hierarchical order within the family or the group, the etiquette that controls their behavior, and the substance of their relationships.

The typical Chinese meal eaten in a restaurant - and the Chinese love to eat out - is an even more dramatic representation of Chinese culture. Evening meals in particular are typically banquet style, a thanksgiving for the food and a celebration of family ties and the bonds of friendship.

Unlike some Western cultures that require people to eat quietly and quickly, when a typical Chinese family or group eats out it is a noisy, lengthy affair, brimming with the hubbub of humor and ribaldry.

To the Chinese, the banquet table is more than just a convenient meeting place for a meal. It is the place where they confirm their cultural identity and just as just as important if not more so, enjoy fu and their Chineseness to the fullest.

It is around the informal banquet table that the Chinese let their formal hair down, nurture the bonds of old relationships, and make new ones. The informal banquet table is thus a doorway - the only easily accessible doorway - to the inner circle of Chinese life.

Outsiders wanting to establish close relationships with Chinese, for whatever purpose, must eventually enter this "doorway to happiness."

Demonstrating awareness of Chinese style banquet etiquette and its importance in establishing personal relationships is a key step in doing business with the Chinese.

It therefore behooves foreigners who want to do business in China to study up on not only the etiquette of Chinese dining but also on the yin-yang principles that determine the order in which the Chinese eat the various dishes that make up a meal.

Chinese take a great deal of pride in their knowledge of food, and are especially impressed when others share their enthusiasm.